Is this the year 10 wins are just the beginning for Virginia Tech?

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech football faithful can recite the mantra on command: The Hokies have won at least 10 games for eight consecutive seasons, the nation's longest active streak.

But in seven of those years, Tech lost at least three times. And in none of those seasons did the Hokies finish among the nation's top five.

So the annual question has become: Is this the year?

Is this the year Tech wins, for the first time, 12, 13 or, dare we say, 14 games? Is this the first time since Michael Vick exited for the NFL after the 2000 season that the Hokies are truly an elite team?

"There's one goal that we want to get to, and that's to go back and play for that national championship and win that thing," defensive coordinator Bud Foster said at Tech's preseason media gathering Saturday.

The Hokies lost the 1999 title game to Florida State, and who knows whether this squad will return the program to that stage. But few would dispute that Virginia Tech is capable of surviving the opener against Georgia Tech and a Week 6 trip to North Carolina to be 7-0 entering the Oct. 20 game at defending ACC champion Clemson.

"We've got to win our league first," Foster said, "and that's a tremendous challenge. … Right now (Florida State and Clemson) are rated higher than we are and probably deservedly so. … That's kind of what I'm selling, that we have to play with a chip on our shoulder.

"The expectations don't change, though. We expect to be in the hunt for an ACC championship. … That's what you have to set your sights on. If not, you're settling for being mediocre, and that's not what we've been around here."

With nine returning starters, Foster's defense should be light years beyond mediocre. There are depth issues in the secondary and injury concerns at linebacker, but even Foster concedes his line "can be as good as any in the country."

As deep, too, with eight quality players rotating among four spots.

"We feel we have the talent on our side of the ball to be the best defense that's ever come through here," cornerback Antone Exum said. "Of course, Bud keeps that in our heads. That's his goal every year, to be the best defense in the country."

Bless his enthusiastic heart, Exum probably isn't well-acquainted with the 1999 D that allowed a meager 10.5 points per game, or the 2006 gang that yielded 11 per game. But there's no denying that defense, as usual, is Tech's trump.

The issue is whether the offense and kicking game can generate enough points.

"Those guys are really starting to turn it up," linebacker Bruce Taylor said, "especially with us going more to a spread offense. … If (they) keep it up, we have a chance to be just as good an offense as we are a defense."

Quarterback Logan Thomas gives Tech that chance, and he'll be orchestrating an attack that play-caller Mike O'Cain said will be faster and more deceptive. More pistol formation, more mis-direction, occasional no-huddle.

Toward that end, O'Cain, offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and running backs coach Shane Beamer traveled to Texas during the offseason to exchange ideas and schemes with the Longhorns' staff.

"I've been in my past more stationary, see where the defense lines up and attack it," O'Cain said. "Now here, you don't know where (the defense is) going to line up. … It's probably a little more risk involved. But sometimes by taking those risks, you have a chance at bigger plays. …

"We've got a lot of work to do offensively. The optimism is there, but it's cautious. … I know we're talented. It's just a matter of getting that talent molded and moving in the right direction."

O'Cain attributes the changes to football's evolution rather than the Hokies' personnel. That said, the rugged, athletic, cerebral Thomas is an ideal quarterback to manage not only the different schemes but also inexperienced linemen and tailbacks.

"A little bit nasty at times and explosive," Thomas said of the identity he'd like the offense to assume.

And once the pads go on next week and the first offense starts facing the first defense, the competition will ramp up.

"I think that's the way it should be," Thomas said. "You don't want to be the side of the ball that lets down the other side."

That is every team's mission, to be so balanced that one unit's inevitable sub-par day doesn't translate to defeat.

Is this the year Tech becomes that team? Is this the season in which 10 victories are just the beginning?

David Teel can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at dteel@dailypress.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/sports/teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP